Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1887-06-11
Useless Vacation.

Manchester, N. H., Union.
The fact has been frequently COM
mented on that Americans lack the
faculty Of enjoying their holidays and
vacations in such manner. The habit
of work, of persistent STRAND activity
becomes so strong that it can hardly
be shaken off, and an attempt to Sc
cure rest is often accompanied by a
sense of effort utterly inconsistent
with this idea, but it findsa still more
forcible illustration in an account
lately published in the Art Age ofthe
failure of an attempt at rest made by
a party of working girls last October.
They were employed the year round
in a brush factory in the city, and a
philanthropic lady of wealth thought
to do them a marked Kindness by
sending them into the country for a
two weeks rest at a pleasant farm
house.
They had been accustomed to work.
ing regularly ten hours a day, rising
early, carrying their dinners and
reaching home late. Their only
time for amusement was during a
short evening, and Sunday was their
only resting day. Attheir workth they
sat all day on long-legged stools with
out backs. On the farm they need
not rise until eight in the morning
unless they chose easy rockingchairs,
hammOcks and swings were at their
service, and they had threefull, warm
meals a day. In addition to all this
an abundance of light reading was
provided and a large orchard was free
to them. Yet, with all these advan-
vantages, the experiment proved a
dismal failure. The girls did not care
to read; they were too uneasy to en-
joy the chairs and hammocks, and
found their greatest satisfaction in
long walks over a dusty road to the
nearest town. They found country
life dull, cherries and uninteresting,
, and finally gave up the attempt to
enjoy themselves, and returned to the
city three days before their vacation
was ended.
These girls were city born and
bred, and had a sense of strangeness
and discomfort outside their native
, element that they could not over
come. Habit had made the warm
l room where they earned their week.
ly wages more attractive than all the
charms Of the country which they
had no faculty to enjoy. The stir and
: hustle of the shop, the hum of voices,
, the laughter of a mate, and, more
! than all, the incentive of the wages
> tor which they toiled, made their
> everyday life not only tolerable but
; positively a pleasure compared with
I the aimless, listless life they lived at
= the farm house, and they were doubt
less delighted to find themselves back
on their hard, high stools again. The
l same sensation 0 frelief has been eX-
y pressed by many a man and woman
Z upon returning to surroundings and
duties that habit has made long ia
miliar, and an illustration quite as
D pointed as that of the shop-girls is
!, often found in the case of hard-work.
u ing country people whose Sol OF
I daughters have made homes fol
> themselves in the city and been sue.
cessful in life.
" The sturdy father finds himselfsur
y rounded with unfamiliar household
objects, and goes out to wander
through unaccustomed streets. Ever
his sons office or store seems uncon
}, genial to him, and time hangs heavi
II ly on his hands, only to be more toll
g cradle if he finds something to busy
/ himself about. If his son has a wood
II pile to be sawed and piled into thu
!, II shed, or a garden to be spaded, tn
/ city visit will not be altogether a fail
II ure; otherwise, the probabilities ar,
that the worthy old gentleman will
J go back to his farm, and plain, sub
=: stantial home, proud of his boy ,likel.
Il enough, but with a sense of relief tina
- the visit is over, after all.
"There is something in this littl
9r fellow l like" said an a%ppreciativ
/. visitor tO q vOunp hOpeful he wa